


No Seaweed Bed For Me

by Jackidy



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/M, Merfolk AU, teenage wy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 08:39:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3889753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackidy/pseuds/Jackidy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I’ll wear a gown of coloured scales and bind my hair with sea grass, but you can be my ocean love and I your human lass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Seaweed Bed For Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hurrhurrr](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=hurrhurrr).



> Inspiration for these two comes from the strangest of places ahaha. A quick, and harmless for me, merfolk au featuring Nyo!Seychelles as a whale shark merman (not to whale shark size) and a teenage Wy. I'm a real sucker for this ship but only in cases where they are the same age/nothing happens but Wy hasa crush on Seychelles.
> 
> Written for Hurrhurrr (tumblr) for her 21st Brithday last year.

At first it’s just shells and pieces of coral that appear on the dock beside her, Matilda not sure where they came from but would always take them home, the shells always much prettier than anything she had found on the beach around her island home, the box she kept them in slowly filling to the brim, her favourites littering the windowsill of her bedroom.

Looking for the giver is always fruitless, ending with her more confused than ever, Matilda giving up on her search for a few days and just accepting that the shells were going to appear no matter what, continuing to crab and ignoring the splashing of the water against the dock as she started to pull her line in.

She pauses as something touches her leg, looking down and yelping in surprise at the crab on her lap, pushing it off her in panic as well as dropping her line, a curse slipping from her lips and Matilda nearly kicks the bucket of the ones she’d already collected in the ocean.

No, she couldn’t do that, they were tonight’s dinner, and she highly doubted James would bring anything back with him from the mainland with him for tea. She had, after all, promised fresh crab for it.

Turning her back to the ocean for a moment, she tugs on her hair in frustration, fully prepared to swear again only to pause as she heard something tap against the wood of the dock, a look of confusion on her face as she turned and looked down to find her bucket there, more full than before, her line tied to the bucket handle.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” She’s not expecting an answer so her disappointment in not getting one confuses her, shaking her head before picking up the bucket and looking round for anyone once more. “Thank you, whoever you are!”

She’ll figure out who is doing it eventually, heading back towards the house with a slight skip in her step, unaware of the dark eyes watching her go from just above the water before sinking bellow the waves.

—

Next come crabs and an all manner of small brightly coloured fish, Matilda freaking out and quickly throwing the small creature back, thankful for the small gesture of affection as always but have nothing to store the animals in and panicking, not wanting the creatures to have a wasteful death on her behalf.

She searches for this unknown admirer more then, taking to snorkelling in the clear water only to find nothing bar the aquatic life she would expect: Coral reefs, brightly coloured fish and equally as brightly coloured octopi. Nothing out of the ordinary at all, even with the odd reef shark that showing more interest in the fish than her bar for the odd inquisitive look or motion.

It’s hopeless she feels, she’s never going to find her secret admirer, twisting the mask and snorkel in her hands before making a noise of frustration and falling backwards, lying flat on the salt weathered wood bar her feet that dangled in the warm water. “Why do you hate me?” She’s not sure who she’s addressing, sighing before pausing as something touches and sucks onto her skin.

That…that wasn’t normal, was it? With the same panic she had when that first crab crawled across her lap, Matilda jolts up, attempting to rip the Octopus that had begun to wrap around her, eventually succeeding and throwing it back in the water, any care for the mollusc gone as she noticed the bleeding.

“Ah bugger.”

Putting her hand over the cut and turning on her heel, the Australian makes a dash back to their home with a shout of ‘LAWRENCE, I’VE BEEN BIT!’, up the steps and into their back garden, to her panicking brother who spewed into an inquisition of what had bitten her and what it looked like.

All this whilst panicked and guilty eyes watched her go, the creature sinking beneath the waves and looking for the octopus he had given her, baring teeth as he finally saw it and attacking the animal.

—

It’s two weeks before she returns to the dock, small scar from where the octopus had bit her just below her waist to remind her of her ordeal the last time she visited. The first 3 days she just sits and waits hoping for something to happen, anything at all, fingers occasionally brushing the scaring as if doing as much will make the mystery gift giver return, doing it more often as the days went buy but, as always, to no avail.

They just simply hadn’t come back.

By the time 8 days had passed, she had grew tired of waiting but continued to do so anyway, laying on the dock once more, though in a fashion that it would be her face or chest that was mauled should another legged aquatic beast appear, hands folding behind her head and eyes focused on the steadily darkening clear sky.

James would be home soon with Wellesley and Lawrence would be shouting that dinner would be done any minute now but still, she can’t stop the waiting. Dear lord, she was developing an attraction to someone she had never met before, is this normal or was this something hopelessly and romantically ludicrous that nobody had experienced before?

But then how many people could say something in the sea gave them things?

Sitting up as she hears her older brother shout her name, Matilda looks down as something clatters against the wood, picking up the shark tooth necklace she had made whilst in hospital, looking behind her at the ocean before dangling it over one of the supports, resting just above the waves.

She returns the next day to find the necklace gone, three shells waiting on the dock for her still wet and, for once, she’s never been happier than then to see something waiting for her.

—

It’s 3 weeks since the necklace was given and a further three weeks of intricate shells, seemingly prettier than the ones given before and left on display in a large jar in her room, the older ones having been packed away in the box for them under her bed. She was beginning to feel like her admirer would run out of shells before she found out who they were.

Though, this time she receives her gift she catches a flash of something, looking at the disjointed shells before here that didn’t quite fit together before back at the water. It was nothing, just a fish, Matilda shaking her head and turning her attention to the shells, pausing at what lay inside, nearly dropping the shells in her surprise.

A pearl, she’d been given a pearl.

Putting the gift down, she moves towards the end of the dock, laying on her front and leaning over to view underneath. It’s a ridiculous notion, to think that the giver would be under there and that the flash of colour she saw was them. This wasn’t some Disney film, this wasn’t magic, it was probably just a shark swimming though or…

Oh…

It was a boy.

But it could not be said he was entirely human, dark skin peppered with spots and lines, small slits on his neck with wide, dark eyes and fins where his ears should be. He wasn’t a boy he was a “merman,” Matilda mumbled, noticing the shark tooth dangling around his neck and smiling to herself.

Her admirer was aquatic, good looking despite his unusual anatomy, her cheeks a splash with colour as he moved closer, and inquisitive look on her face as the redness spread from the blood gathering there before ding the last thing she expected and kissing her.

The kiss is short and brief, Matilda growing dizzy from the blood and the sudden kiss, the taste of what she could only describe as the ocean on her lips. She’d been kissed by a merman, how many people could attest to that, turning her head at the splashing to find him propped up by his arms, his look still curious but also somewhat guilty.

Did he think she was unpleased? That she had hated it? She’s not sure on the matter herself, truthfully, but she still finds herself sharing another with him, finding the bitterness of the salt something she could grow used to, pulling back and giggling as the others ear flaps seemed to wag happily.

She’s not sure where the words come from, strangely like something James had once said at Wellesley before the other had told him to stop reciting book songs at him and proceeded to hit him with the book it was from. Memories of the first verse are gone, nothing but the worlds from the second come to mind and in the transition to her lips become changed and tangled into something new.

“And how she smiled and how she laughed, the maiden of the land. She swam away and said to him, no seaweed bed for me. I’ll wear a gown of coloured scales and bind my hair with sea grass. But you can be my Ocean love, and me your land lass.”

Matilda recited, before laughing as tiny, blunt teeth nibbled at the fingers the merman had taken to inspecting. He wasn’t human, he probably couldn’t speak her tongue and it wouldn’t last a life time but he was, by her means, perfect.


End file.
